


The Morning Post

by ThisNothingInTheMiddle



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Eight is there too in writing and memory I guess, F/F, Fluff, Sometimes it's just like that yknow, there's like no plot and not a whole lot of shipping but whatever!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 03:29:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20400949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisNothingInTheMiddle/pseuds/ThisNothingInTheMiddle
Summary: Liv wakes up in an armchair. Helen moves some books around. The Doctor is on holiday.





	The Morning Post

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eldritch_reyni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldritch_reyni/gifts).

> This is a birthday present for my friend who's kind and funny and talented and made me feel welcome in a Discord server where I've met a lot of friends! This is also late, but I am who I am.

A door slammed, and Liv jerked awake in her chair. A blanket fell from around her shoulders. The library was warm with morning light, and there was dust in the sunbeams. Liv blinked.

Helen groaned. “Oh no! I’m sorry, I forgot that the door swings shut.”

“Izokay,” Liv said, and pushed some hair out of her face.

Whenever Liv slept somewhere new, she’d always wake up forgetting for a moment where she was. It was a strange sensation that was only made a hundred times more confusing by travelling in the _Tardis_, when she could wake up literally anywhere. For a moment she felt vulnerable- but it didn’t feel as bad when Helen was the first person she saw.

Speaking of, Helen was currently looking at her and smiling at her bedhair. Embarrassed, Liv tried to bring her hair under control using her hands as a brush.

She remembered where they were now; they were staying in some old manor house. England, yet again. The Doctor was old friends with the lady of the house- or _practically_ was by the time he’d spent five minutes with her. Now they were in the manor’s small library, which had ladders and reading desks and lots of other pieces of elaborate décor. It rather reminded Liv of the library onboard the _Tardis_.

It was the Victorian epoch. Liv didn’t know the exact year, but she figured it was somewhere before the First World War and after the Renaissance. All the women wore complicated dresses, which she and Helen both agreed where awfully uncomfortable, but which Liv secretly thought Helen looked rather good in. All the men wore suits which looked just as stuffy, although the Doctor had claimed to have worn one all the time before he met Liv, and they just needed a bit of getting used to.

Liv was still wearing the clothes she’d been in all day, which apparently hadn’t stopped her from falling asleep at one of the desks, settled into an unreasonably comfy armchair. She saw now that the book that had been in front of her when she was nodding off had somehow been replaced by a cushion from the couch.

“What time is it?”

“Just past eight o’clock.”

“In the morning?! I slept here all night?” Liv’s back was sore. She remembered pulling all-nighters in the local library as a medical student, and knew with certainty that she’d never ever be able to do that again.

Helen shrugged apologetically. “You were so tired! I didn’t have the heart to wake you. And Mr Nestor told me that you had spent _all_ of yesterday helping the village doctor.”

“Yeah, well, he’s rubbish at his job. I know it’s the dark ages but I mean, come on.”

Helen raised an eyebrow, and Liv knew she was wondering if Liv really thought it was the dark ages or not. Liv tried not to make it obvious that honestly she had no idea. Helen elected not to comment and picked up a pile of books- one of many that were strategically scattered around the room. Since they had arrived a few days ago, she had been making use of the library and its (apparently) fantastic collection of old and rare books for a personal project. Now the room was much messier than it had been last night.

“Did you get any sleep?” Liv asked.

“Of course I did! _At least_ four hours. I slept in that chair there.”

“You’re way too chirpy for four hours in an armchair.”

“Practice. And coffee.”

Liv groaned and stretched. “Is the Doctor back from London yet?”

“The opposite, actually.”

“Uh, what’s the opposite of being back? Not that it doesn’t sound like a very Doctor thing to be.”

“This came with this morning’s post,” Helen said in answer, and relieved a small piece of paper from its job as a bookmark before handing it to Liv. “It’s a telegram from him.”

It was addressed to Liv and Helen, and had several lines of crisp typed text.

“**LEFT LONDON STOP**,” Liv read aloud. “Stop?”

“It stands for a full stop,” Helen told her.

Liv continued, “**GONE TO PARIS STOP**. Paris?! Typical. **LIV YOU KNOW HOW LOVELY IT IS THERE** **STOP**. **THIS IS THE BELLE EPOQUE STOP**. **CITY IS FLOURISHING STOP**.”

“Only the Doctor could try to wax lyrical in a telegram,” Helen sighed.

“Has he abandoned us to go on an impromptu holiday?” Liv said, a little miffed.

“No, he goes on.”

“**SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED** – **UNHAPPY SONTARAN ON THE LOOSE STOP**. You know, I don’t think he suspected anything of the kind. I think he’s always vague about his theories just so he can say he was right all along later. **CAN’T STOP UNTIL HES STOPPED STOP**.”

“Now he’s just being silly,” Helen said.

“**DON’T LEAVE MANOR STOP**. **WILL BE FINE STOP**. **HOPE GOOD WEATHER HOLDS STOP**. **XX THE DOCTOR**. Great, it’ll be another few days before he’s back. At least! Oh wait, there’s a bit more to the message-” Liv suddenly stopped and blushed.

Helen was grinning at her. “Go on.”

“**PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIV**.”

Helen clapped her hands. “Happy birthday! You didn’t tell me!”

“I didn’t know,” Liv said, baffled. “How can it be my birthday if I haven’t been born yet?”

“Well, either today is the date you _will_ be born on…“

“In a different calendar from a different planet, yes.”

“…or the Doctor’s kept track of how many days you’ve spent aboard the _Tardis_.”

“That’s… insane. We travel to a dozen different planets and time zones a week. And how does he even know when my birthday is?? It’s creepy.”

“Maybe the _Tardis_ keeps track of our time for us.”

“Like a big blue clock? Suppose that makes sense for a time machine.”

“Anyway,” Helen said, “I assumed you wouldn’t want to make a big thing out of it.”

“You know me too well,” Liv tried to say sarcastically, while at the same time was admiring how true it was.

“…Buuuuut,” Helen went and opened a drawer in one of the other desks and took out something she’d stowed away there. It was rectangular and about the size of a book- well, a normal sized book, not the behemoths Helen had been poring over for the last few days. “Surprise! Birthday present!”

Liv felt herself blushing again. “Helen, you shouldn’t have.”

“Well, I didn’t actually do much. It was lying around in the _Tardis_ darkroom, I just had to pick out a frame.”

With that, Liv recognised the rectangular object as the back of an old analogue picture frame. Helen turned it right side up as she handed it over.

It was a photo that they’d taken at Salzburg, not that long ago. When they’d first arrived in the city, the Doctor had insisted they copy the other tourists milling around the place, and had asked a stranger to take their picture. Liv remembered how cold she’d been, even wrapped up in jumpers and jackets, with her gloved hands shoved as deep as possible into her pockets. But she was standing straight and smiling in the photograph, probably something to do with Helen happily having her arm looped through Liv’s on one side, and the Doctor throwing his arm around her shoulders and beaming on the other.

Liv knew that when she travelled with the Doctor, life very rarely slowed down. They were always moving to the next place. You had to savour what you could. But this photo captured a bit of that precious, magical time, and froze it in ice and snow, just for her.

Liv cradled the picture in its simple frame and beamed at Helen. “Thank you. It’s wonderful.”

Helen looked pleased with herself. “Now you can appreciate the Doctor’s unique fashion sense forever.”

They laughed, and looked at him in the picture. On the day he had only been wearing his usual attire- a coat and t-shirt. After a substantial amount of worrying from his friends- and Liv controversially pulling rank as their ship’s medtech- he had rushed back into the _Tardis_. But he claimed that he couldn’t find a scarf, and when he emerged again, he had only a green silk cravat tied daintily around his bare neck.

Liv had been exasperated at the time, but looking back now it was one of the funniest things she’d ever seen him wear. “When he gets back, I’m going to mock him about that.”

“I’ll be there,” Helen laughed.

Liv knew that was true, and was glad. She could stay in this place and time forever if Helen was there with her. She’d rather stop wearing the dresses as soon as possible though.

“I’d better find some fresh clothes. I’ll shower in the _Tardis_,” Liv said, summoning her energy in preparation for getting out of the chair.

“And I was going to ask Nestor about the village library,” Helen said.

Before Liv could stand up, or more likely say something predictable and sarcastic about needing more books, Helen kissed her on the forehead, muttered “Happy birthday, Liv,” and walked quickly from the room.

Liv blinked. She knew it was cliché to feel her heart explode a little. She’d criticise any movie that had a character lightly brush the place they’d been kissed and smile. She liked to think she was above all that. Evidently not. Oh well. She hummed a bit of 'happy birthday to me' as she stood up.


End file.
